Generalized Reynolds Equation for Micropolar Fluid With Microrotations Near Surface and Its Application to Journal Bearings

The theory of micropolar liquid lubrication (see Prakash and Sinha, 1975; Tipei, 1979; Singh and Sinha, 1982) takes into account only the increasing of effective viscosity in thin layers. Modern experiments (see Derjaguin et al., 1985) show that effective viscosity can increase or decrease and approaches to a certain limit (boundary viscosity), depending on the type of liquid and nature of the solid surface. A new generalized Reynolds equation that takes into account both these effects and also all possible situations in microrotation near the friction surface is derived in this work. An example using the equation for calculation of the journal bearing performance is given. It is shown that the friction coefficient can be sufficiently decreased without a noticeable change in the load capacity by regulation of interaction between micropolar lubricant and surfaces.